Coalscam: CBI supplies documents to Naveen Jindal, other accused

The CBI today told a special court here that the copies of the charge sheet and other documents have been handed over to the accused, including Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal, in a coal scam case.

The CBI today told a special court here that the copies of the charge sheet and other documents have been handed over to the accused, including Congress leader and industrialist Naveen Jindal, in a coal scam case. The CBI told this to Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar who had earlier taken strong objection to non-supply of the papers by the central probe agency. The judge then posted the matter for further hearing on July 26. The court had on May 25 granted bail to five accused named by the CBI in its supplementary charge sheet in the case which pertains to the allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

Those granted the relief were Jindal Steel’s adviser Anand Goel, Gurgaon-based Green Infra’s Vice-President Siddharth Madra, Nihar Stocks Ltd Director BSN Suryanarayan, Mumbai-based KE International’s Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Aggarwal and Mumbai’s Essar Power Ltd Executive Vice-Chairman Sushil Kumar Maroo. The names of these five persons were given by Suresh Singhal, a chartered accountant, who was chargesheeted by the CBI as accused in the case but had later turned an approver.

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The court had summoned the five new persons as accused after taking cognisance of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI on March 24. Besides Jindal, the case also involves former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao and ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda as accused. CBI had alleged that Koda had favoured Jindal group firms — Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) and Gagan Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd (GSIPL) — in allocation of Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Jharkhand.

All the accused have denied the allegations levelled against them and said there was no evidence to show that there was any conspiracy during the coal block allocation process. The CBI recently filed another charge sheet against Jindal and five others, including Goel and Maroo, for allegedly cheating the government by misrepresenting facts to get the Madhya Pradesh based Urtan North coal block. They have been summoned as accused for September 4 in the case.